In total, British programmes make up 16 of the 36 award nominations at the 2012 festival.

In the keenly contested sitcom category, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's mockumentary Life's Too Short starring Warwick Davis will compete against Channel 4's Friday Night Dinner and Tall and Greenbaum, an Israeli comedy. When the awards were last held in 2010, E4's The Inbetweeners took the prize.

The Million Pound Drop and The Cube will compete for the best game show prize, a category in which they're joined by Still Standing, another Israeli format.

BBC's Horrible Histories and The Grufallo's Child battle it out in the children's category against Dutch show How to Survive...?, whilst ITV's The Jury, Martina Cole's The Runaway (Sky1) and Pan Am all compete for the best series title.

The lifestyle category also see's a UK head to head as ITV's May the Best House Win is pitted against BBC's The Great British Bake Off.

Begun in 1961 in Montreux, The Rose d'Or festival is one of the most important dates in the world television calendar. As well as honouring the best in television, the festival is an important networking and discussion forum for the television industry.

In recent years many British programmes have been honoured at the awards including The IT Crowd, Skins, Extras, The Secret Millionaire, Little Britain and Strictly Come Dancing.

This year's festival starts on 6 May in Lucerne, Switzerland. The award winners will be announced at a special ceremony on 10 May.